What this means is that, if he’s elected, Romney may inherit an
economy that, while far from ideal, has achieved escape velocity.
President Obama, meanwhile, will have borne the brunt of the
nastiest crisis since the Depression and still gotten
the boot. One man’s unjust legacy is another man’s just deserts,
however. Recall that George H.W. Bush passed on an
already-recovered economy to his successor, Bill Clinton, who in
turn passed on a recession to George W. Bush.

The narrative that will be pushed by corporate leaders and the
media is already pre-written: With the switch to Romney, people
will say, American corporate leaders finally got the confidence
to invest, and so the economy took off.

And in fact, there's a good reason to think that corporate
America IS on the verge of a ferocious investment comeback,
since currently corporations are pessimistic and
under-investing. But that under-investment won't be able to
stand in the face of the consumer comeback, which is the most
powerful force in the global economy.

A reminder of how much corporate investment has slowed down is
this year-over-year change chart in the 3-month average of core
Capital Expenditures.

Bloomberg, Business
Insider

The idea that corporate confidence is the main problem in this
economy is a complete myth.

But with consumers powering forward, and corporations inevitably
caught in a place where they have to catch up, the timing could
not be better for a Romney victory to "validate" that storyline.

As an aside,
Zeke Miller at Buzzfeed reports that in the closing days of
the campaign, Obama is going to start taking credit for the
economic comeback, something he's never done before. The news is
spreading: The US economy is on the mend.